LATEST NEWS
Join us for Pacific Cine Waves on August 25th!
Visual Communications, Films by Youth Inside, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center are pleased to bring an inspiring selection of works created by Pacific Islanders to the Los Angeles South Bay community. Join us for Pacific Cine Waves on Friday, August 25th at the Carson Community Center!
Meet a Digital Histories Fellow: Gerald Chow
We wrapped the 14th year of our Digital Histories program at the 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Read on as our VC Social Media Intern Melody Chen had a quick chat with Digital Histories Fellow Gerald Chow to learn more about Digital Histories and his experience with the program.
VC Receives an Organizational Program Grant from LA County Arts Commission
Visual Communications was just awarded a 2017-18 Organizational Grant Program grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors! We are happy to receive funding to continue our Armed with a Camera Fellowship program, which will be entering its sixteenth season this fall.
VC Living Room Screening: Kizuna Edition
Visual Communications teams with local youth empowerment organization Kizuna as we screen a program of popular and compelling new works that premiered earlier this year at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival as part of Kizuna’s annual Leadership Training workshops. Stay as we welcome many of the directors of these fine productions — a mixture of audience faves, as well as right-field gems specially curated for the occasion.
HBO and VC Launch the 2018 HBO APA Visionaries Short Film Competition
The HBO Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film Competition is dedicated to showcasing emerging APA directors with unique perspectives of the Asian Pacific American experience. The theme for the 2018 APA Visionaries Short Film Competition centers around the concept of “home”. Three winning films will be awarded cash prizes and make their premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in April 2018 and offered the opportunity to license their film to premiere exclusively on HBO (and/or its on-demand, digital and/or social platforms) during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in 2018. The deadline for entries is November 1, 2017.
Touring Little Tokyo as a 2017 Getty Intern
Our VC Summer Intern Heidi Kim went on her first Getty Hub meeting, which took her on a walking tour of Little Tokyo. Read about what she learned as an intern under the Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Program
GOOK Opens in Theaters Starting August 18!
Samuel Goldwyn Films has just released the new theatrical poster for the award winning Sundance film GOOK - a Justin Chon Film. The film will be released in theaters across the US beginning on August 18 in Los Angeles and other cities to follow.
Visual Communications Awarded California Arts Council “Artists Activating Communities” Grant
Visual Communications has received funding for At First Light from The California Arts Council as part of its Artists Activating Communities program.
Releasing "Bronze, Brass, Jazz" Into the World
We had a great turnout for our BRONZEVILLE, LITTLE TOKYO program at the 2017 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. MEMORY BANK (projection map installation) and BRONZE, BRASS, JAZZ (VR piece) were hits at the Festival! We’re happy to finally share BRONZE, BRASS, JAZZ with you to view at home and for you to share with your family & friends.
GOOK, COLUMBUS, THE SOWER, SAVE MY SEOUL, and PLASTIC CHINA Take Top Honors at the 33rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
On the closing day of the 33rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF), Visual Communications announced their filmmaker awards for this year’s edition which began on April 27 and concluded on May 11, 2017.
Asian-American Filmmakers to Hollywood: Give Us a Platform to Create Without Compromise
NBC Asian America sat down with four filmmakers — Jeff Chiba Stearns (“Mixed Match”), Nadine Truong (“I Can, I Will, I Did”), Robin Lung (“Finding Kukan”), and Tanuj Chopra (“Chee and T”) — during the 33rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival to talk about the challenges they’ve faced when knocking on Hollywood’s gates, what their biggest concerns are when “whitewashing” becomes the focus of films, and how audiences can encourage better representation in the media they consume.
Artistic Director Anderson Le on The 33rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
A Q&A with Anderson Le, Festival Artistic Director, about THE 33RD LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL presented APRIL 27 – MAY 4TH, 2017 in LOS ANGELES at select cinemas, and from MAY 5 – 11 in ORANGE COUNTY at the CGV Cinemas in Buena Park.
Academy Announces 2017-18 FilmCraft and FilmWatch Grant Recipients
The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today 44 recipients of its 2017 FilmCraft and FilmWatch grants. Visual Communications is one of the recipients of the grants for the Armed With a Camera Fellowship Program.
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW: Here and back again
I hadn’t done a #throwback in such a long time, but seeing how dropping bombs is a recurring theme today, I thought I’d drop a bomb of my own: back in early 2001, filmmaker Justin Lin and Linda Mabalot, our former Executive Director at Visual Communications, struck a modest deal to let VC serve as HQ for the independent feature he was working to get made.
HBO® Showcases Emerging Asian Pacific American Directors at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
The winners of HBO’s first Asian Pacific American Visionaries short film competition will receive their world premiere screenings with an exclusive event at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on April 28th, 2017.
Getting to Know LAAPFF2017 Staff: Alvin Nuval
Erika Vazquez, one of our Communications Associates for the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, has a chat with Operations Manager Alvin Nuval. We are still looking for people to join our Festival team as a volunteer, so sign up here!
Gidra & the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising
Ashes and dust sweep the streets as thousands of Angelenos march loudly. From sidewalks and rooftops, LAPD and National Guard members observe with angst. Banners demanding a peaceful resolution juxtapose memories of semi-automatic weapons firing just hours beforehand. After three days of chaos, much of the city’s hearts and minds—hoping for a direction forward—find an epicenter in Koreatown.
Bronzeville, Little Tokyo – A Threshold in Time and Place
Learn about Little Tokyo's rich history and intersection of people of color within Los Angeles in this feature article by Maya Santos and Joel Quizon from Form Follows Function. "Bronzeville, Little Tokyo" is a free program during the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival that will run from April 29-30.
Justin Lin, John Cho and Oscar Eligibility Highlight 2017 L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival Lineup
Press article on the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival by Tim Gray from Variety.
From the VC Vault: 1972 Hiroshima and Nagasaki Memorial Vigil/March
Read this piece by Brian Kohaya, a Visual Communications intern who spent time working in the VC Archives. One photo set that really stuck out to Brian was the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Memorial Vigil and March that occurred in August of 1972.